UC Berkeley

How did the Roman state affect areas under its control? This dissertation addresses that question by examining one area, northern Italy, which was administered by the state at its most and least intensive. In the Republican and Late Antique periods the state frequently and directly intervened in the area. During the Republic changing Roman conceptions of northern Italy led the state to intervene dramatically in ways that remade the physical and demographic landscape of the region, while in the late Roman period similarly changing attitudes led to reformulation of the region's purpose and position within the empire. In contrast, the Roman state's presence in northern Italy in the early Imperial period was minimal, and this study explores the reasons for and effects of that minimalist approach on northern Italy in the first and second centuries AD.

Explanations for this early Imperial policy towards northern Italy are to be found not just in the region's late Republican history but also in the creation and evolution of Italian identities. Case studies of the Aemilia and the central Transpadana illustrate the intersection of these identities with state policy and ideology. These studies also examine the consequences of that intersection on everyday life in towns and in the countryside, on matters ranging from tombstones to taxes and from poetry to politics. Further case studies of Aquileia and Liguria look at how the state, even in its minimalist form, shaped the development of local economies and societies through the movement of people and goods around the empire. Together these studies examine the effects of the state on interregional networks as well as on individual communities.